Thermal conductivity Boron nitride

PolarTherm Thermally Conductive Boron Nitride Fillers For Polymeric Materials. Advanced Ceramics Co., www.advceramics.com 2001. accessed July 28, 2010. 

The interelectrode insulators, an integral part of the electrode wall stmcture, are required to stand off interelectrode voltages and resist attack by slag. Well cooled, by contact with neighboring copper electrodes, thin insulators have proven to be very effective, particularly those made of alumina or boron nitride. Alumina is cheaper and also provides good anchoring points for the slag layer. Boron nitride has superior thermal conductivity and thermal shock resistance. 

Cubic boron nitride (c-BN) is a different material altogether from h-BN, with a structure similar to that of diamond, which is characterized by extremely high hardness (second to diamond) and high thermal conductivity.As such, it is a material of great interest and a potential competitor to diamond, particularly for cutting and grinding applications. Its characteristics and properties are shown in Table 10.3... 

In experiments run over a number of cycles, the activity was observed to increase after the first cycle, unlike the y-A Os counterpart which deactivated. Using BN, no Pt sintering occurred and this was ascribed to the high thermal conductivity of BN, ensuring that no local hot-spots were formed. On the basis of XPS, the locus of Pt particle attachment was proposed to be surface boron oxide impurities. Taylor and Pollard have compared the activities of silica (194 m g ) and boron nitride (7 m g ) supported vanadium oxide catalysts for propane oxidation. The use of boron nitride was reported to significantly... 

Boron nitride is a ceramic with outstanding properties. It is thermally stable at temperatures up to 2,730 °C, is a good electrical insulator, and has a high thermal conductivity coupled with excellent thermal-shock resistance. It is also chemically inert. 

Thermal Evaporation The easiest way of evaporating metal is by means of resistance evaporators known commonly as boats . Boats, made of sintered ceramics, are positioned side by side at a distance of approximately 10 cm across the web width (Fig. 8.1). Titanium boride TiB2 is used as an electrically conductive material with boron nitride BN (two-component evaporator) or BN and aluminum nitride AIN (three-component evaporator) as an insulating material [2]. By combination of conductive and insulating materials, the electrical properties of evaporators are adjusted. 

Some applications, however, must conduct heat but not electricity. In these applications the adhesive must permit high transfer of heat plus a degree of electrical insulation. Fillers used for achieving thermal conductivity alone include aluminum oxide, beryllium oxide, boron nitride, and silica. Table 9.9 lists thermal conductivity values for several metals as well as for beryllium oxide, aluminum oxide, and several filled and unfilled resins. 

Theoretically, boron nitride is an optimum filler for thermally conductive adhesives. However, it is difficult to fill systems greater than 40 percent by weight with boron nitride. Beryllium oxide is high in cost, and its thermal conductivity drops drastically when it is mixed with organic resins. Therefore, aluminum, aluminum oxide, and copper fillers are commonly used in thermally conductive adhesive systems. 

Silicon carbide, widely employed as an abrasive (carborundum), is finding increasing use as a refractory. It has a better thermal conductivity at high temperatures than any other ceramic and is very resistant to abrasion and corrosion especially when bonded with silicon nitride. Hot-pressed, self-bonded SiC may be suitable as a container for the fuel elements in high-temperature gas-cooled reactors and also for the structural parts of the reactors. Boron carbide, which is even harder than silicon carbide, is now readily available commercially because of its value as a radiation shield, and is being increasingly used as an abrasive. 

Nonoxide ceramics, such as silicon carbides, silicon nitrides, and boron nitrides, have unique mechanical and functional characteristics. Silicon carbides with high thermal conductivity, high thermal stability, excellent mechanical strength, and chemical inertness are especially considered as effective catalyst supports. 

Boron nitride filler address the burning need of modem electronie industry which is to protect electronic equipment from ever increasing generation of heat by high performance electronic devices. The combination of high electric resistivity with high thermal conductivity gives required performance to electronic adhesives and components. 

In modem electronic devices there is a need to manufacture materials which have high thermal conductivity and a high electrical resistance. The data in the Table 5.19 show that such a requirement can be easily fulfilled using boron nitride or beryllium oxide. Both fillers have excellent thermal conductivity and they are electrical insulators. 

Electrically insulating and thermally conductive qualities are important in computer chips fabrication. One approach taken is based on boron nitride fillers which offers these two properties. There is also a need to develop materials which are thermally conductive but electrically insulating in high humidity conditions. Polyurethane composites filled with aluminum oxide or carbon fiber can be used for this application. Figure 19.15 shows the effect of the amount of filler on thermal... 

Figure 1 shows the two models which were calculated. The base structure was considered with another research group for improvement of the thermal conductivity, while three layered structure was adopted on the view point of shielding. The base structure was assumed to be a concentric cylinder of 60 cm height which was formed void, strontium titanate ( "SrTiOs, P 5.12g/cm 0 and boron nitride (BN, p 2.26g/cm3) from the inside. The weight of these two materials was made to be identical each other. 

Although most ceramics are thermal and electrical insulators, some, such as cubic boron nitride, are good conductors of heat, and others, such as rhenium oxide, conduct electricity as well as metals. Indium tin oxide is a transparent ceramic that conducts electricity and is used to make liquid crystal calculator displays. Some ceramics are semiconductors, with conductivities that become enhanced as the temperature increases. For example, silicon carbide, SiC, is used as a semiconductor material in high temperature applications. 

Cubic boron nitride has high thermal conductivity, high dielectric constant, great hardness, and good chemical stability. The material can be doped n-type with Si and p-type with Be to form p-n junctions. While cubic boron nitride (c-BN) has been successfully doped p- and n-type to produce the first UV-LEDs, it is an indirect bandgap semiconductor which will ultimately limit emission efficiency. Relatively few studies have been performed on this material system. ECR-LPCVD techniques [23, 24] and LPCVD [25] have had the most success informing BN films. As with other specialty materials there is a lack of BN substrates. In order to produce the c-BN phase, high deposition temperatures often are combined with assisted techniques. 

Boron nitride, when crystallized in its cubic form, has interesting electronic applications [53]. In addition to its chemical inertness, it has high thermal conductivity. This is important in microelectronic applications where the dissipation of heat is one of the main problems. An increase in temperature can induce the diffusion and reaction between the different layers of the electronic device and reduce its performance. The boron nitride coating in this case is protective in at least three ways mechanical protection due to its hardness, chemical protection, and thermal protection. 

Thermally conductive compounds are mainly used in the electronic industry to remove heat from electronic components. Additives to be used are ceramics (e.g., aluminum nitride, or boron nitride) or carbon-based additives (e.g., graphite, carbon Abers, or CNTs) or even metal Abers [63, 64]. The concentrations used are quite high and can easily be in the 50% range. 

A number of nonmetallic materials are called high thermal conductivity materials. The most notable of these is diamond, with a thermal conductivity of 2000 Wm K. All of the others have a dia-mond-Uke stracture, and include boron nitride, BN, and aluminium nitride, AIN (Table 15.2). 

Thermally conductive adhesives may be filled with metal, ceramic, or inorganic particles. Silver-filled epoxies have high thermal conductivities, but may not be used where there is a risk of electrical shorting. In such cases, epoxies or other polymers filled with electrically resistive, but thermally conductive materials such as aluminum nitride, boron nitride, alumina, or beryllia must be used. Some applications for thermally conductive adhesives include attachment of power devices, heat sinks, large components such as capacitors and transformers, large ceramic substrates, and edge connectors. 

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